


We'll Live to Dance Another Day

by Seeking_Xanadu



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Batkids Age Reversal, Dick Grayson is Robin, Dick Grayson is still the original Robin, Dick Grayson-centric, Gen, Reverse Robin AU, au elements, damian is learning, not beta-ed we die like titans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25762684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seeking_Xanadu/pseuds/Seeking_Xanadu
Summary: What happens when the eldest is not the one who sets up a legacy for the family; when the eldest is an assassin instead of a hero. Now Bruce is dead; Damian doesn't know where he fits in; and Dick might be running out of time.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Comments: 5
Kudos: 82





	We'll Live to Dance Another Day

**Author's Note:**

> A Reverse Robin AU. Dick is still the original Robin (There can be no Robin without Dick's tragedy originating it, just like there can be no Batman without Bruce's tragedy originating it). Gotham still gets her heroes though. These are their ages and mantles:  
> Dick is 14 and Robin  
> Cass is 20 and Black Bat; Bruce's first adopted.  
> Jason is 20, Bruce-Cass kept him out of vigilantism  
> Steph is 22 and Spoiler  
> Tim is 22 and Finch  
> Duke is 24 and Signal  
> Damian is 28

Tim calls Damian at 11 am on a Wednesday. 

Damian ignores the first four rings but picks up on the insistent fifth with a huff. “Drake, what do you want?” 

“I don’t like calling you either,” Drake says. Damian has the realisation that today is going upside down fast. Drake’s voice lacks the usual mockery and malice. It is uneven and haggard. “It is important.” 

“Drake, there were no ambiguities in what Father’s last will and testament,” and if Damian sneers out those words Drake can handle it, “and I am resolute his will be carried. I don’t care what you…”

“It is not Bruce.” Drake interrupts. “It’s Dick.” 

Damian’s forehead vein throbs. “What about Grayson?” 

He can hear Drake sighing on the other side. “You may or may not remember Duke is doing his thesis on child psychology. Well, he is working in the office of Ms Munroe, Gotham’s longest serving agent. She handled Dick's case. Duke saw Grayson’s file passing hands and we think State is going to re-open his file. Unless Bruce adopted him and no one knows, State will claim Dick back.”

“And?” 

“Really, Damian?” Drake snaps. 

“Drake, offer me one good reason why I am to bother about Dick’s living arrangements. He was Father’s ward and if Father had the vision to write me out of my own inheritance, perhaps he would have been better off using some of that prescience on Grayson.” 

“CPS put Dick in a juvenile detention centre last time. Even you cannot be so callous as to put him back there, Damian. They nearly beat him up. Imagine being sent back there after living with Bruce Wayne. They will kill him! And the guards and grown-ups will turn a blind eye to it all. Two days later, you will get a condolence call from State. Can you live with that?!” Drake snarls. 

_Huh Drake can snarl_ Damian thinks and finds it rather side-splittingly funny. He didn't think the runt had it in him.

"Look, Cass is leaving on the first flight back from Hong Kong. Can you take care of this for a day or two, Damian?" Drake calls his name a few times and then curses as he says something about Lucius Fox and cuts the call. 

Father has been dead two months. Lucius Fox runs Wayne Enterprises. There is no more Batman in Gotham. Gotham limps with her other saviours. Damian scoffs. _Losers_ is more apt. 

\--------

Damian stares blankly at the opposite wall. There is a grain in the paint that makes Damian long to pick at it with his nail. Damian gets up from where he was working on a new art piece at his desk. 

Father has been dead two months. Bruce left a will behind and the family assets divided among all the _family_. The will was airtight. Damian learnt that fact when Damian tried to fight Fox for his _birthright_ to the Wayne name. Lucius had the decency to not look at Damian with pity. Damian does not have the decency to appreciate that fact. Every time he thinks of Father, Damian tastes bile swirling in his throat. But Damian has made certain vows. He means to keep them even as their keeping slices him into shreds. 

Father had known about Damian’s existence for precisely 13 years; Damian knew of Father’s many attempts to get him back from Mother and Grandfather but Damian had nursed dreams of his own and so he refused the offers. At 26, Damian had finally seen part of his dreams come to fruition. He killed Grandfather, destroyed a significant portion of Ra’s devoted fighters, built his own army, and then installed his joyous vengeful mother as Demon’s Head. Damian had long thought the title as “his” but in the weeks after Ra’s death and months before news of Father’s demise had come; Damian had felt another pull and had reached out to Batman. 

He had made an offer of allegiance. 

Batman had rejected it. 

Bruce Wayne had not refused it. 

At the time Damian was certain time was on his side and he could show Father he was worthy of Batman. Damian’s return to Gotham made the appropriate headlines. There were several interviews, feature stories, and galas, presenting Bruce Wayne’s first-born to industry and high society. But Mother had not raised a fool. He recognised what the only profile story with a business publication meant. His inner boy raged to demand his place in the family, the young man in him knew it as the price of the choice he made as a teenager. Damian does not regret his choice. Father may never have accepted him back if Grandfather was alive. 

When he does arrive at the manor, he is years late because Father has other children. 

Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne’s adopted son, looked at Damian with open disdain. Todd, Damian grants grudgingly, is a brilliant academic who spent most of his time away at prestigious schools. When he came home for the holidays and weekends, Father and Todd would hole up in Martha Wayne’s cosy parlour, discuss literature, philanthropy, and Jason’s future. Father had left provisions for Todd’s education for the next decade. When Todd has offered to come home to help him with Dick, Pennyworth had turned him down. “It was Master Bruce’s ambition that you complete your education, that you pursue your dreams. Make him proud, Master Jason,” Pennyworth had said. 

Todd had caught him alone in the kitchen before sunrise the morning he left. Damian was getting his pre-morning workout tea when Todd and Grayson returned from a run. Dick had run off into the garden for his yoga. Jason noticed Damian through the windows and had stomped in. 

“Wayne.” 

“Todd.” 

“Dickster likes you. Don’t even think of exploiting that boy’s kindness. If Alfred even hints you are trying to hurt him, I will take you down myself.” 

“Hm. You and what army, Todd?” 

Damian is built more like Mother than Father and Todd is smaller than even him. But where Grayson contracts his natural charisma in public to mask Robin, Todd’s large personality always takes up an obscene amount of space around him. It has given both boys inaccurate reputations in Gotham’s gossip rags. 

_Jason Todd the arrogant street boy._

_Dick Grayson the meek circus brat._

Damian knows better.

“There are eyes on you, Damian. Remember that. Bruce didn’t trust you. You are still here because of Dick. Hurt him, and I will throw you out.” 

Damian sneers. “This is my home, Todd. Father left me a share.” 

“No,” he says. “Dad left you a share of his assets. The manor isn’t included. You stay here at the pleasure of Alfred, Cass, and me. Dick’s safety is on us. you give any of us a whiff of a reason, you will be outta here in minutes, al-Ghul.” 

Damian had looked down his nose at the boy playing grown-up. He can respect the boy’s posturing but it is posturing nonetheless. He can’t resist it. He throws a “We shall see then, won’t we?” behind as he leaves with his tea. 


End file.
